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Clash Of The Maine Political Titans: Medicaid Expansion Edition

Once again, a war broke out between major players in Maine politics over the topic of Medicaid expansion. This time, it occurred on the popular social media website Twitter Thursday night.

The launch of the Maine Republican Party’s counterproductive Maine Madness brackets sparked some controversy by some targets, such as fellow Bangor Daily News blogger Mike Tipping. Tipping took issue with the personal attacks, which was a bit ironic, as former State Legislator and failed Maine Republican Chair candidate Jonathan McKane pointed out.

For those who don’t remember, Tipping was the one who went digging a few decades back to before grunge rock escaped Seattle. That far back in the past, he found some ignorant, but outdated quotes from Representative Lawrence Lockman. Lockman said some awful things, but there’s enough fecal matter to shovel currently that made going that far back completely unnecessary.

Liberals all throughout this debate have resorted to dirty scare tactics, equating opposition to murder. It’s interesting coming from those who believe murder is fine for infants, so long as they’re undeveloped and reliant on their mother within the womb.

Tipping, of the Maine People’s Alliance, ran a blog recently titled “Accepting federal health care funds would mean less cancer.” The article discusses a rebuttal of State Senator Colleen Lachowicz to State Senator Rodney Whittemore. While the “cancer of dependency” remark by Senator Whittemore was insensitive given the topic of healthcare, the title of the article seems to suggest that the federal government has some divine healing ability.

Because federal money has saved a lot of failing aspects of American society, right?

Gerald Weinand of the popular liberal blog Dirigo Blue then tried to use Gagnon’s tragic car accident against him on the eve of its anniversary.

The common liberal claim is that refusing healthcare results in murder, because uninsured people won’t get treated. Weinand even claimed that without seatbelt laws, people would die and seemed to suggest opponents were murderers.

Also note the Maine People’s Alliance’s counterproductive website 157Mainers.com, which claims that a policy disagreement will result in people dying.

This, like Maine Madness, is an unnecessarily escalation of rhetoric and personal attacks just to excite their respective bases. It’s an election cycle and we’re in the pep rally stages.

But seriously, everybody grow up.

To clarify for Tipping, Weinand, and others: a murder is what happens when a developing child is savagely executed in abortion clinic, simply because they’re reliant on the mother’s body as an incubator. Mother Nature is such a spiteful entity for plotting this “War On Women” scheme called “human reproduction”, which actually creates an astonishing number of women.

A murderer is what happens when you give President Barack Obama a drone and let him play overseas. These global assassinations result in escalated conflicts and increasing numbers of hostiles. Soldiers end up dying, as do innocent civilians ranging from those byproducts of Mother Nature’s evil human reproduction scheme straight up to the elderly.

If policy disagreements result in deaths, where were Democrats when their party was becoming everything they criticized President Obama’s awful predecessor for being? Being murderers?

Any of us could be considered a murderer if we stretched logic enough beyond the boundaries of rational thought.

What do these liberals think of Maria Anna Schicklgruber? What if a back alley abortion had been performed in Braunau am Inn before Adolf Schicklgruber was born? He might not have grown up to assume his father’s last name and become a homicidal madman turning the German Government into a genocidal machine.

But ultimately, this escalation of rhetoric is never productive. Republicans get excited about Republican leadership running fantasy brackets that will give exciting personal attacks and Democrats get excited about Democratic leaders portraying opponents as murderers, but that’s about it.

The largest voter block in this state is unenrolled and people don’t show up at the polls because this childish level of politics disgusts them. Because policy has devolved into an immature brand of politics, most do not bother in voting. This gives greater power to the anarchists and libertarians who argue that voting is useless.

Conservatives are winning this battle by calling out the extremist rhetoric and fear tactics of liberals, but Republican leadership would be wise to not hurt the cause with cheap gimmicks such as Maine Madness. Stick to policy, grow a spine to again inspire the base, and the Republican Party might actually live up to 2010 once again.

Democrats aren’t winning because their hypocrisy and vitriol is popular with Maine voters. They’re only taking elections because no serious organized opposition exists. The Republican leadership isn’t principled enough to inspire Independents and third party voters, let alone principled enough to even keep their own clan together.

As long as the focus is on Maine Madness brackets, Democrats will get away with calling opponents of bad policy “murderers.”

Mainers lose. Again.

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About Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning activist who is State Coordinator of the Maine Tenth Amendment Center and former Androscoggin County co-coordinator for the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign. These thoughts are his own, and not on behalf of any organization he works for.

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Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning activist who is State Coordinator of the Maine Tenth Amendment Center and former Androscoggin County co-coordinator for the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign. These thoughts are his own, and not on behalf of any organization he works for.